Mercy Thompson is an anomaly: a female automobile mechanic who owns her own shop, half Native American, and ― in a world with werewolves, vampires, fae and other supernatural beings ― she is one of a very few “walkers,” or skinwalkers, able to easily shapeshift into a coyote at will, without regard to phases of the moon. When Mercy surprised her human mother by turning into a coyote pup when she was three months old, her mother, not knowing what else to do, turned her over to be raised by a werewolf pack. Mercy left the pack as a teenager, but still is watched over by the werewolves, particularly Adam Hauptman, the alpha werewolf who shares her back fence line and with whom she has a sometimes uneasy alliance. Their relationship is a confusing mix of attraction and, on Mercy’s side, bravado tinged with fear that the alpha werewolf will override her free will and autonomy.
When a starving teenage boy shows up at Mercy’s garage asking for food and work, her acute sense of smell tells her that he’s a werewolf. She realizes that the boy, who calls himself Mac, understands nothing about werewolf society and rules and needs Adam’s help to survive and thrive. The problem of Mac becomes more acute when two strange men show up and try to recapture Mac to take him back to their enclave. Mercy overhears them arguing about cages and drugs, and she determinedly intervenes to rescue Mac from the threatening strangers, but the situation turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined. Mercy soon needs to return to her original werewolf pack for help ― even though it means that she will need to face Samuel, the werewolf that she loved and left as a sixteen year old.
The plot of this first book in the Mercy Thompson series revolves around a mystery: who is creating new werewolves in such an uncontrolled and dangerous manner, and why? I found this mystery to be the weakest element in the book, with a resolution that didn’t entirely hold water. Also unfortunately, the overused love triangle trope is part of the plot of Moon Called, but at least it’s got a decent rationale and isn’t oversold. I appreciated that this book is not sexually explicit, which is a refreshing change of pace in the urban fantasy genre.
It’s been interesting taking on Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series after reading several books in Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series. Although both series feature entertaining, well-developed urban fantasy worlds and with strong women protagonists, Mercy is more vulnerable and unsure of herself than Kate Daniels, as John also notes with approval in his review. Kate is great fun with her enormous kickass abilities, but Mercy is ultimately the more believable character. Her intelligent, no-nonsense narration is one of the strengths of Moon Called. I admire the tremendous scope of imagination the Ilona Andrews team has shown in creating Kate’s world, but I also appreciate the more realistic (if one can say that of an urban fantasy), down-to-earth world of Mercy Thompson.
3.5 stars.
Initial post/mini review: For some reason I read the second book in this Mercy Thompson series first (oh, yeah, this book was checked out at the library at the time, and I really wanted to try out this urban fantasy series). I liked it pretty well, but I have to say everything just made so much more sense once I finally got around to checking out this book! In fact, I actually checked out the second book again, as well as the third book, just so I could put all of the pieces together. So, don't do like I did. Start here, at the beginning. But keep going even if you're not terribly impressed with this first book; they get better as they go along.
If you like urban fantasy, with werewolves and vampires and suchlike (this one also throws in fae and witches), this is a worthwhile one. We've already got a love triangle starting here that lasts at least through the second book, so minus some points for that, but at least it's got some decent reasoning behind it and isn't oversold....more
Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽
>
Books:
library-has
(182)
Loading...
